


Fly With Me

by rainbows_rawr



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, M/M, Other, Phan - Freeform, medivalish, phil is a dragon this is a weird au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-04
Updated: 2015-08-04
Packaged: 2018-04-13 00:11:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4500228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbows_rawr/pseuds/rainbows_rawr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan Howell, an explorer, turns to a cave for shelter from an awful storm. Little does he know, he will soon stumble across his first ever best friend. Meanwhile, tensions are rising at home...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fly With Me

**Author's Note:**

> This AU is strange I'm sorry.

The rain was falling down in buckets. Thunder crashed in the black sky, followed closely by bright, jagged slashes of lightning. Below the churning sky, a young adventurer ran in search of shelter. His feet pounded the sopping wet grass. His shoes slammed down into a puddle, soaking his trousers with muddy water. He drew his bag over his head and ignored his heart hammering in his throat. His legs burned. The castle town was too far away now. He scanned the gray landscape for shelter. His eyes landed on a cave at the edge of the forest. 

He made a break for the cave, ducking into the cold, dry formation as another crack of thunder rang across the plain. He stumbled further into the crevice. Slowly the light died away and he could no longer hear the sound of the downpour. However, something compelled him to continue running, right, left, right, left, another left, and a final right. He slowed down and found himself in a huge round area. The lack of light wasn’t helpful for navigation, and he could barely see a thing. He walked with his eyes toward the tall walls of the cavern, astonished by the size of the formation. 

Suddenly, he felt himself fall. His hands shot out and caught him before his face met with the floor. 

A bright blue light filled the room, along with a great sound, akin to that of… fire? Crackling and sparking. His eyes grew wide. He looked up at the gigantic creature creating the teal fire. From the limited light he could make out the reptilian shape of… No. It couldn’t be!

He stumbled to his feet. He drew his sword and faced the colossal creature. He backed into the entrance of the cavern while the creature recoiled in fear of the silver blade. He sheathed his weapon and raced out of the cave back into the pouring rain. 

One thing that perplexed him, however, was the single word that the lizard stammered before he was out of earshot, “Wait!” 

~~~

Dan lay down on his bedroll, replaying the scene from the previous night in his mind. He wanted to forget all about it, let himself believe that the dragon hadn’t spoken to him, that the dragon didn’t even exist, a figment of his imagination. The dragons were all gone, right? Killed with their riders, surely. 

Somehow, though, he couldn’t shake the image of the bluish sparks, the teal flame spiraling from the beast’s mouth. Could it all have been real? Surely not.

Dan concluded that the only way to cure his insatiable curiosity was to go back to the cave and find the dragon. He pulled his scabbard over his shoulder and walked out the door. 

Once outside, he glanced around the threshold. A few merchants were selling things, some wanderers were conversing in corners of the marketplace. It was early morning, so the drawbridge hadn’t been lowered yet by the guards. Dan looked around and leaned against a stone wall to await the opening of the doors. Soon, though, he was approached by a girl about his age with long blonde hair and pink at the tips. 

“Dan! Where were you the other night?” The girl inquired excitedly. 

“Oh, hi, Louise. I got stuck in the rain, so I, er, tried to hide in a cave,” Dan stammered in reply. 

“Interesting. Did you get back before the bridge closed?”

“Yeah, actually. The cave... was freaking me out so I came back here once the rain stopped.”

“May I ask what about the cave was scaring you?” Louise asked innocently. 

“Oh, uh, just some… rats,” he stuttered.

“Ah, well, I’d best go. Nice talking to you, Dan!”

“B-Bye Louise,” he concluded. 

Shortly after the exchange, a rumbling noise sounded across the expanse, and the giant drawbridge began to sink down over the moat. He walked across it and out onto the dirt road.

~~~

Dan entered the forest, sun spotted across the ground through the thick roof of leaves. His brown hair was dappled with shades of pale yellow and his black tunic was speckled with blotches of light. 

He drew in a deep breath and walked along the path. The walk was not quite silent, as birds chattered in the canopy above, cheerily building nests and flitting about. The quiet didn’t bother him, and soon he spotted a rock formation. He branched off from the path and headed toward the cave. 

The cave was wet from the previous night’s rain. Dan’s breath shook as he stepped into the dark cavern. He drew his sword and clenched the hilt tightly until the silver blade lit up with pale yellow light. 

He took a deep breath and traversed the cave until he reached the huge rotunda he had come across hours before. He felt blood pounding in his ears and his heart thudding in his chest as he stepped up to the sleeping dragon’s head. 

He held his glowing sword up to the creature’s face to try and glimpse its features. He examined every individual scale on the beast’s brow, every ridge on the dragon’s huge, corkscrew horns, every single detail on the lizard’s beak.

Dan jumped back as the dragon opened it’s eyes to reveal big, icy blue irises, filled with every shade of grayish blue imaginable, bottomless bodies of frozen water and huge shards of pitch black onyx down the middle. 

The dragon caught a glimpse of Dan’s glowing blade and shrank back, crouching down, a solemn expression on his face. He stammered, “H-have you c-come back to… t-to k-k… kill me?”

Dan’s eyes widened and he dropped the sword, extinguishing the light. The room went dark and the dragon let out a yelp. “Uh, it’s okay! You’re fine! I’m not going to kill you, don’t worry!” Dan assured the creature. He felt around for his sword on the cave floor but to no avail. 

Suddenly, the room was illuminated with the same blue-green light and the fiery noise from the night before. Dan gazed up at the dragon, a smile on his face. He picked up his sword and lit it up again. The dragon stopped producing the orange flame and looked down at Dan. He blinked and sat down. 

Dan did the same, sitting on a ledge. After a moment of eyeing each other, Dan spoke. “So, er, what’s your name?”

The huge creature softened a bit and replied, “PJ called me Phil.” 

“PJ? Who--”

“Long story. PJ was a dragon rider I knew.” Phil looked down. 

“Oh.”

Again it was silent. 

“What do the humans call you?” Phil asked after a while. 

“Oh! Oh, right, I’m Dan.”

~~~

Dan jogged along the dirt road. The setting sun was painting the world with bright streaks of red and orange. Dan had no time to appreciate the beauty of the sunset, though, because the guards would close the bridge soon. 

Soon the gray walls enclosing the town showed themselves, and Dan waltzed over it, his feet creating hollow wooden noise.

He was greeted by Louise, who was always interested in hearing what he had seen and done on his adventures. “Dan! Hi!”

“Hey, Louise.”

“What’d you do today? Oh, my! Where’s your sword?”

His sword? In its scabbard, right? He reached for the hilt but to no avail. He had left it in the cave. “Oh, I must have misplaced it in the cave I wandered around in today. I’ll just, eh, have to go back and get it tomorrow.”

“Oh, a cave? The one rumored to have housed…” she paused and lowered her voice, “Dragons?”

Dan’s heart quickened. Dragons had been thought extinct for ages, what would happen if the townspeople knew the truth? “Oh, I don’t know. I just found an interesting looking cave. Must’ve dropped my sword.”

“Ah, well, that’s a shame. Tell me more about it!” she pressed. 

Dan couldn’t possibly tell her about Phil. Instead, he feigned a yawn and said, “Maybe tomorrow, Louise. I need to get some rest.”

She narrowed her eyes in suspicion, but nodded and said goodbye. Dan turned to enter the bakery he lived in. 

The scent of fresh bread wafted through the air. He snuck into the kitchen area and snagged a roll of wheaten bread before opening a cabinet and removing a goblet from within. He swung open the trapdoor in the floor and climbed into the wine cellar. He sat down on his bedroll and tore off a piece of the roll. 

He grabbed a half-full bottle of wine from the shelf nearest his bedroll, and took the top off. With a swift motion, he filled the goblet to the brim with the deep red liquid. He let out a deep breath and took a swig of the drink. He tried to feel the fluid flow through his body, filling him with a warm feeling. As he traced the liquid’s path, he craved another sip. Then another. Then yet another. Then his cup was empty and his head was fuzzy. 

He decided at this point that one glass of wine was enough for the night and crawled into his bedroll, the cup falling on the floor.

~~~

Dan woke up with a headache. He pulled himself out of his bedroll and slipped his scabbard over his shoulder. He climbed the ladder and pushed the trapdoor open. The bakery was dark. He tiptoed out of the building so as to not wake Hannah, the owner. 

He stepped out of the door and into the cool morning air. The sun had risen but not cleared the castle walls, so an ominous shadow was cast over the town. Louise was nowhere to be seen as the bridge lowered. 

The walk to the forest was quiet. Large clouds loomed at the tips of the mountaintops, but the air warmed up as he walked. Soon, he reached the cave. Without his sword, visibility faded quickly. However, having been here twice, he knew which ways to turn to get to to the rotunda. The dragon was sleeping again. His sword was nowhere to be seen. 

He tried to focus his energy to light up even the tip of the blade, but to no avail. He didn’t want to wake Phil again. The dragon was jumpy enough as it was. He closed his eyes and tried to feel where the sword was. From the dragon’s claw, he saw a tiny glint. His breaths shook as he approached Phil’s talons. He reached out a timid hand to touch the hilt. 

The sword lit up immediately. Dan jumped back and cried out. Phil’s icy blue eyes flew open. The expression of fear on the dragon’s face melted away and turned into one of pleasantly surprised joy. “You’re back!” He said. 

Dan chuckled. “Yeah, I left my sword here.”

“I was going to tell you before you left yesterday, but I guess I forgot, sorry…” He trailed off. 

“No, it’s fine. I’ll be going now, let you sleep.” The boy turned to exit the cavern.

“W--wait!” The dragon exclaimed. Dan turned around. “Could you stay?”

Dan smiled. “Sure.”

~~~

“So, Dan, do you know anything about the dragon riders?” Phil asked, his eyes lighting up. 

“Not really,” Dan replied. 

“Do you want to? You’re one of them, after all.”

He considered this for a moment. “Why not?”

Phil chuckled. “Well, there used to be quite a few of them. Of course, there were many dragons too. The riders served as the protectors of dragons as a whole, and vice versa. The two lived in harmony with regular humans, often defending cities and towns from thieves and other threats. Then the king of your city over there,” the tip of his tail lazily flicked toward the cave’s mouth, “decided that it had gone on too long. 

“He ordered his dragon riders to attack other colonies of dragons and riders in the neighboring kindgdom. This began the war. The king’s army killed dragons and imprisoned riders en masse. PJ and I managed to escape to a secluded cave in the Ash Grove and we lived there. He eventually decided that to be loyal to dragons and his fellow dragon riders he had to fight in the war. I never saw him after that day. 

“I lived alone in there until, much like you did, another rider stumbled into my cave to escape the fighting. His name was Chris, and he said that PJ had sent him. He told me that PJ had died. I was, of course, deeply saddened by this. We eventually became friends, and the war reached the Ash Grove. We flew away from there, and travelled to this valley. Chris was eventually captured, and I’ve been alone ever since. It’s been nearly three years now.”

Dan stared at Phil. “That sounds awful,” he mumbled. 

Phil blinked and looked down at the human. “I suppose so,” he remarked after a while. “At least the war is over now.”

“Not quite, although it’s less physical. Dragons are thought extinct.”

“Wow, I guess I’m lucky you’re the one who discovered me.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” He smiled at Phil. “I suppose I’m lucky as well, you know, to have found you.”

“I suppose so.”

~~~

When Dan stepped out of the cave, he was met with large raindrops splashing down on his head. They felt like they were burning as they nestled into his hair and soaked into his clothes. Yes, this was going to be a big storm. 

However, as Dan ran home, he found that he wasn’t worried about not getting home all right, or the bakery flooding, but not being able to see Phil the next day. 

Was that bad? Probably. 

~~~

Dan got home just after the drawbridge closed. Shit. How was he going to get in? 

The garden! The bakery was connected to a field of all kinds of different grains and vegetables. It was relatively secluded behind a wall of trees, however, so it led directly into the house. No one seemed to think it was dangerous, as no outsider would think to look there for a way into the town, so Dan set off into the orchard. 

He hopped the fence, wove his way through the crops and managed to get to the door without falling into a flooded irrigation furrow. He opened it as quietly as he could, and stepped in. 

He was about to take a couple of the cookies from a pan on the table, when he remembered that Louise had wanted to talk. The rain was still pelting down in buckets, but he recalled Louise saying something about a tavern a few nights prior.

Knowing this, he retreated into the basement. He pulled a long trench coat from a hook on the wall. He drew it over his shoulders and put his arms through the sleeves. They were slightly short on him, but it didn’t matter too much. It would keep him somewhat dry, and that was good. 

He climbed the ladder and walked out the door into the rain. 

~~~

Dan reached the tavern in what seemed like the single few wettest minutes of his life. He looked inside and spotted Louise leaning on a crate in conversation with a couple of people he didn’t recognize, and her best friend Zoe, whom he had met a couple times before. 

He pushed the door open and walked over to the group. Louise jumped up and waved to him as he wandered over to them. 

“Dan! I didn’t think you were coming!” She greeted him. 

“I, er, I guess you thought wrong.” He replied, glancing around the room. The people she had been talking to looked at each other skeptically.

Louise didn’t seem to notice this as she walked up and grabbed his arm. She dragged him over to the bar, saying, “Let’s talk about that cave of yours!” 

He ordered a drink and turned back to Louise. “There’s not much to talk about, really. It’s a nice cave. There are these beautiful stones in the walls sometimes. I enjoy it.”

“Well, there has to be some reason you keep going there every day,” she pressed on. 

Louise had been Dan’s friend for a long time, but he wasn’t sure whether he could tell her about Phil. How would she react? “Well, I wouldn’t say that. It’s only been a couple of days. I just left my sword there is all.”

She gave him a look that could only mean she knew something was up, but she stopped prying. 

He exhaled slowly and took a sip of his drink. 

~~~

The two didn’t talk very much after that. A week passed, then a month, then two months, and Dan visited Phil every day. The dragon told him stories about the war and his adventures with PJ and Chris, and Dan told him about his life in the castle town. 

This morning, he was always up early. He donned his trench coat again and pulled his scabbard over his shoulders. He swung the trapdoor open and climbed out of the cellar in one fluid motion. There was another tray of bread on the table. He grabbed a piece and walked out the door. 

As he neared the drawbridge he spotted a familiar blonde-haired person walking over to him.

“Hello, Dan.” Louise said when she was in earshot. 

“Er, hi.”

“How are you?” She asked.

“I’m okay, why?” Dan was getting somewhat confused at this point. She said nothing, leaving a horrible, awkward gap in the conversation. “So, er, how have you been?” He asked, his voice shaking. 

“I’ve been all right, aside from my friend avoiding me.”

“Oh, right.” He replied, looking down at the ground. 

There was another lull in the conversation. Dan almost turned to leave through the lowered drawbridge, but before he could move, Louise remarked, “It just doesn’t make sense, Dan.”

“What doesn’t make sense?”

“This cave business. Why do you keep going? Even a cave can’t interest you that much. What’s going on?” She demanded.

“Nothing. It’s just a very large cave system.”

“You’ve been exploring it for over a month now! I’ve seen you tackle bigger tasks in a matter of days! There has to be something else.”

“No. There’s nothing. Nothing at all!” Dan snapped, and immediately regretted it. Louise’s desperate expression changed very quickly into a glaring, hopeless one. 

“Fine.” she said, deadpan. Dan could feel the ice in her voice as she turned to leave. He shook his head and ran to Phil’s cave. 

He didn’t even use his sword to find the way to the rotunda, he already knew it from gratuitous repetition. When he reached the room, he found that Phil was already awake. There was a strange purple light, presumably from a fire, emanating from behind him, creating an ominous silhouette. 

“Dan! You’re later than usual. Everything all right?” He inquired, in his normal cheerful manner. 

“Not really.” He groaned. 

“Why, what’s wrong?”

“I fucked up. Louise, you know of Louise, right?” He paused, and Phil nodded, “Yeah, she was really interested in hearing about this place and wanted to know why I come here every day. I told her I was just exploring, and liked the place. The trouble is, I’m not really exploring it, I’m here with you, but I can’t tell her that! She would tell everyone, and word would reach the King, and they would… I… I don’t know what would happen.”

Phil nodded thoughtfully. 

“She knows something is going on, it’s just a matter of time until she finds out.”

“That does sound like it would cause problems.” Phil remarked. 

“Yeah, the trouble is that this excuse will only last a bit longer. I just… I don’t know. I don’t think she’s talking to me anymore. I may have snapped at her.”

“Well that wasn’t very smart, now was it?” 

“No…”

“Tell me about the places you’ve explored.” Phil said suddenly.

“What?”

“You said that you told her you were exploring this cave. You must have explored other places too, right?”

 

“I guess that makes sense,” Dan said, nodding. “The first time I ever explored a place, like really explored, was in a neighboring town. There was a small forest that many people were too scared to go find stuff out about. Being a field hand at the time, I couldn’t just up and go, at least not without getting in trouble, but that’s just what I decided to do. I drew maps and wrote about the things I saw and whatnot. 

“When I got back, I found that a lot of people thought I was dead, so that didn’t exactly bode well for me. I couldn’t go back to work, so I looked for something else to do. I was in a tavern one night, looking back at some of the maps and notes, when someone saw them and asked me if i wanted to be a mapmaker for him. Turns out he had connections to the army, who needed maps and had none. I said yes, because I had nothing else to do, but also because I really enjoyed exploring places in depth. 

“This led me to many places and I saw a lot of things. When I got to this town, my job as a mapmaker sort of fizzled to a halt. After a lot of drinking and nights at the tavern, I came into contact with a baker who lived in the castle town and needed someone to help out and had a place I could live. Of course, I jumped on the opportunity, and that pretty much brings me to where I am now. I’ve explored the forest quite extensively, but I’ve only ventured into this cave recently.”

“Whoa, that sounds like a nice way to spend your time.” Phil marveled. “Exploring… what an occupation.”

“Yeah, those were some pretty good times. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

“Want to see something else?” Phil asked. 

“Uh, okay. Sure.” Dan answered.

“Follow me, then.” Phil stood up and walked into a corridor to the left of the rotunda. Dan drew his sword and followed closely. The blade lit up as the pair disappeared into pitch blackness. 

“So where are you leading me?”

“You’ll see in a bit.”

“Okay, then.”

They walked in silence for a long time until they approached a hill. There was light radiating from the bottom of it. 

“Watch your step,” Phil warned as they drew nearer. Dan noticed small crystals jutting from the tunnel walls and poking up through the floor. Phil stopped at the foot of the hill. Dan looked back at him, a look of fascination and apprehension on his face. Phil nudged him forward. He turned around and clambered up the hill. 

His jaw went slack as he took in the view of what looked like an ocean of quartz, tinted green and blue with spires of aventurine and aquamarine. The walls were dotted with emeralds and amethyst, apatite and citrine. 

He felt a presence next to him. He looked over his shoulder to see Phil. “So, what do you think?”

“It… It’s beautiful.” Dan stammered. 

“Look up,” Phil directed. Dan could hear the smirk in his voice. He obliged, and shifted his gaze to the roof of the cave. Or, where it would be. The amphitheater was open at the top. The night sky looked down at the crystals, the moon shining down on the room, illuminating the gemstones. He could see the Milky Way in stunning clarity from his stance on the hill. “Beautiful, innit?”

“Whoa…”

“Chris found it just before he left. I’ve been waiting to show you for a while,” the dragon said. 

“It’s amazing.”

“Say, Dan, you’ve never flown, have you?”

“Uh, no,” 

“Do you want to?”

Dan’s heart quickened. A smile spread across his face. “Of course.”

The next half hour was what Dan would only describe as heaven. Phil’s huge, leathery blue wings out to either side of him, holding on to his spiraling horns for dear life, touching the stars as they poked out from under the blanket of the growing night.

The glow of the amphitheater couldn’t compete with being enveloped in the bright orange sunset, touching the treetops and feeling the wind in his brown hair. 

When Phil touched down in the middle of the amphitheater again, Dan slid down from his perch on his neck, feeling every scale against his black tunic. His boots touched the ground for what felt like the first time in years, and all he could do was laugh. 

“I take it you enjoyed that?” Phil asked. Dan nodded vigorously in response. “I’m glad.”

“The world looks so different from above! It’s fascinating,” the younger boy enthused. 

“Of course. Seeing it from a new perspective is nice once in a while, right?”

“Indeed!”

“It is getting quite late, though. Perhaps you should go home?” Phil suggested.

Dan didn’t want to leave, but he found himself agreeing with the dragon. Returning through the field again, even after quite some time, was not wise. He nodded. 

And so he ventured out into the night again, to make it back to town just before the drawbridge closed.

~~~

“Dan! Dan, wake up!”

His eyes fluttered open to the sound of the baker’s voice. He looked up at the trapdoor to see Hannah looking down through it, calling his name. 

“What? What’s going on?” He stammered, still groggy from sleep.

“Oh, good, you’re awake. There was a meeting in the town earlier but I didn’t want to wake you. they said that the town is at risk of siege or something because someone thought they saw a dragon. Thought you might want to know that.”

Oh shit. “Oh, er, thanks.”

Dan flew out of bed after that. This was not good. This was not good at all. He pulled his boots on and threw his scabbard over his shoulder. He had to get out of here. He had to get to Phil. He climbed out of the trapdoor and grabbed a satchel. He filled it with everything he might need: carrots, apples, lots of bread, two bottles of wine, and a map of the bordering kingdom. He rolled up his bedroll and shoved it in the bag, then he raced out the back door into the hot midday sun, then stopped outside and said to himself “I’m not fast enough…”

How to accommodate his slowness? There was a pen of horses just a bit to the north of here… Yes, that’s it. He made a beeline for them. Once he reached the pen he threw open the gate, jumped onto it, and guided one of the horses through. He hopped off the gate and onto the horse, propelling the fence closed. He dug his knees into the animal’s sides and grabbed it’s mane as it reared and sped off. He directed it as best he could in the direction of Phil’s cave. 

He leapt off the animal’s back and onto the ground just inside the forest, leaving the horse without tethering to anything. He wouldn’t be needing it anymore, if everything was okay. “Thanks, I’d give you a carrot or something, but I don’t have one to spare. Sorry.” 

As he was about to leave, he remembered the roll in his pocket. He slipped it out and broke a piece off. He slid the stale bread into his hand for the horse to eat, and as soon as it did, he sped off into the forest. 

~~~

“Phil!!” He shouted into the rotunda. “Phil, wake up!”

“What? What’s up? Dan what is it?” Phil’s voice was unusually urgent. Then he noticed the satchel on Dan’s shoulder. His expression grew confused. 

“The townspeople,” he panted, “They saw us--you--last night. We have to leave!”

“Do, we Dan? Do the people still hate dragons, even?”

“Yes!”

“What if they’re like you, what if they want to be friends?!”

“No, Phil! You don’t understand! They want to kill us both! The castle town is on lockdown right now! I had to steal a horse to get here. Phil, we have to get out of here.”

Phil contemplated this for a moment. “We can leave if you come clean to Louise. Let’s not leave any more bad blood than what’s necessary.”

In the heat of the moment, Dan couldn’t care less about what he had to do to convince him. He nodded sternly and ran out of the cave. 

~~~

It was early evening and the sky had filled with dark clouds when Dan finally found Louise in the tavern with her friends. “Louise!” He called out, still panicked. 

“Oh. Hello.”

“Louise, I have to talk to you.”

This seemed to interest her. She walked over to him and pointed to the stairs. “Let’s speak up there. More private, you know?”

Dan felt a wave of relief wash over him as he started over to the staircase. At the top, he found himself in an unfamiliar room, containing a fireplace, two sofas and a big chair all surrounding a coffee table. He sat down on the sofa parallel to Louise’s. 

“Is this about the cave thing, finally?”

“Yes.”

“Well?”

“I take it you’ve heard that… that someone saw a dra--” he could barely finish his sentence. “Dragon?”

Louise’s eyes widened. She nodded very slowly. 

“Well, the rumors are true. But he’s not a bad dragon, nothing like the dragons people have been talking about for years. He’s better than that. He… took me flying, and that’s what people have been talking about.”

“Dan--”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I really should have, but now I have to leave the city.”

“Dan, what? Where are you… What?”

“We’re leaving. I’m leaving the town so we can both live.”

“Dan, calm down. I can’t have heard you right. You befriended a dragon? How?”

“I was as surprised as you are.”

“But… only dragon riders can speak with dragons. They’ve all been gone for ages.”

“I understand that that’s what you might think. Hell, it’s what I thought. But here I am.”

“This is quite a lot more than I expected. If you have to leave, then do. We’ll miss you.”

They stood up and hugged each other before they started back towards the staircase. Dan was met with the face of Zoe and the other two people from before, and they didn’t look happy. Louise stopped cold. 

“Go. Quickly.” Was all she said. Dan bolted past them, nearly knocking them over. He ran for the horse pen once more and jumped on the back of another. 

As they were riding toward the mountain, the crimson sunset colored the stormclouds with shades of red and orange, dappling the jagged peaks. He felt raindrops in his hair and on his face. He thought he could hear someone behind him, but he paid no mind to the sound. 

He stopped at the edge of the forest and gave the horse the rest of the roll.

He ran to the mouth of the cave, and he could have sworn he heard voices behind him. Angry voices. 

He ran as fast as he could into the cave, right, left, right, left, left, trying to lose them until he reached the final turn. He took a deep breath and turned right. Phil was awake. He greeted Dan as he ran in, panting. 

“Ready?” He said, his gaze falling to the floor. 

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing. I’m just gonna miss it here. We have to leave, though. If only for your sake.” 

Dan nodded solemnly, eyes closed. They started down the tunnels toward the amphitheater. 

As they were about to go right, Dan heard a clear cry of “There he is!” 

“They found us! They found us!” He cried. Phil’s eyes widened and he bent down to allow the smaller being to climb on. The corridor lit up with dim orange torch light as the townspeople reached the tunnel, their shouts filling the room with sound. 

From the dragon’s neck, he looked back down at the party. In the torchlight, he could make out long blonde curls falling around a familiar face. 

He was biting back tears when the dragon growled “Hang on tight,” as he ran off down the tunnel that led to the amphitheater. Dan grabbed his horns and held tight as Phil leapt over the quartz deposits and spread his wings as they took flight once more. 

~~~

The rain was falling down in buckets now. Thunder crackled in the jet black sky, followed closely by jagged slashes of lightning. Below the churning sky, a young dragon rider sat on the back of his companion. The dragon’s wings stirred the thick air, keeping them airborne. He drew his scarf over his head and ignored his heart hammering in his throat as they drifted away to new beginnings, maybe even happier ones.


End file.
